This week in the arts: Aug. 3-9

For the 14th year, the Florida State Dancesport Championships returns to the Ritz-Carlton Sarasota this week and you can expect the usual plethora of skimpy costumes, toned bodies and mind-boggling movement.

This year's edition of one of the country's oldest ballroom competitions, which is celebrating its 44th anniversary, features pro-am and professional competitions and a special exhibition by World Champion Theatre Arts duo Eric Luna and Georgia Ambarian. (For those of you unfamiliar with ballroom lingo, theatre arts is the category in which aerials and lifts are allowed.)

The main action takes place Friday and Saturday nights, with the professional competitions in the Smooth, Standard, Rhythm and Latin categories. Depending on your purse strings, you can pop for a fancy gourmet dinner and a little general dancing before the evening competitions begin, or arrive just in time for the action on the floor. Either way, this all too rare opportunity to see the real thing rather than television's idea of ballroom dancing, in your own town, is not to be missed.

Fans of St. Petersburg’s freeFall Theatre know to expect the unexpected whenever a classic play or musical is staged, especially if it’s a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta. The theater company takes an modern approach to one of the British composing team’s most popular works, “The Pirates of Penzance.” Instead of pirates sailing the high seas and capturing young maidens they find on shore, they’ll be meeting in outer space.

Clockwise from top left, Sara DelBeato, Kaylin Seckel, Hayde Milanes and Nick Lerew in the outerspace setting of "The Pirates of Penzance" at freeFall Theatre. ALLISON LYNN PHOTOGRAPHY

“For me to do another remounting of ‘Pirates of Penzance’ with cartoon, swashbuckling pirates kicking around with a bevy of maidens with parasols over the shoulders is nothing I’d be interested in,” said artistic director Eric Davis, who is staging the production.

But find a way to tie it into everything from “Star Wars” to “Star Trek” and then he’s interested.

“We thought of the space thing because what else is so pervasive in our popular culture. Even if you’ve never seen a ‘Star Wars’ movie, you still know what it’s like. There are references to tons of sci fi franchises, funny little references that most people should get.”

When he staged a highly successful production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s “The Mikado” a few seasons ago, Davis did it with an all-male cast in a kabuki theater style.

For “Pirates,” any “nautical references have been changed to intergalactic references. Instead of talking about sailing ships, it’s all about space ships soaring through outer space,” he said. And he’s added a modern verse to the tongue-twisting “A Modern Major General” that refers to a “ton of science fiction things.” And whenever there’s a sword fight, don’t be surprised to see light sabers.

But the overall story will be the same. A young man named Frederic (played by Nick Lerew) was accidentally indentured to a crew of pirates (instead of pilots) until he reached his 21st birthday, but it turns out Frederic was born in leap year and now he’s stuck in their company. Hayden Milanes, who played Frankie Valli in a touring production of “Jersey Boys,” plays the Pirate King, and Glenn Glover is Major General Stanley, whose daughters catch the pirates eyes, particularly the most headstrong, Mabel, played by Kaylin Seckel. Sara DelBeato plays Frederic’s nursemaid, Ruth. The cast also includes Emanuel Carrero, Robert Teasdale, Hanna Benitez, Kelly Pekar and Will Garrabrant.

It’s been 20 years since Florida Studio Theatre last staged James Sherman’s thought-provoking comedy “The God of Isaac,” about a young Jewish man who starts examining his connection to his religion after the Nazis announce plans to march on the heavily Jewish community of Skokie, Illinois.

Sid Solomon, left, plays the title character, and Rachel Moulton plays his wife in "The God of Isaac" at Florida Studio Theatre. MATTHEW HOLLER PHOTO

The play, directed by Kate Alexander and inspired by real events in 1977, is intended as a humorous look at Isaac’s search for himself, and how that puts him in conflict with neighbors, religious leaders, his mother and his non-Jewish wife.

Sid Solomon makes his FST debut in the role of Isaac in the production that opens Friday.

Morality, virtue, lust, romance and following the law are the issues at the heart of William Shakespeare’s “Measure for Measure,” which will be screened in HD from Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre at the Sarasota Opera House.

Mariah Gale as Isabella and Kurt Egyiawan as Angelo in "Measure for Measure," which will be seen in an HD Screening from Shakespeare's Globe at the Sarasota Opera House. MARC BRENNER PHOTO

The screening is part of an ongoing series of opera, theater and dance programs presented in the Opera House.

Variety said the Globe production provides “Shakespeare without a safety net. It’s noisy, it’s earthy, it’s unruly. Here’s a corking good time, clear enough to make the play count with a quite astonishing feat of acting at its heart.”

The screening is at 1:30 p.m. Sunday in the Opera House, 61 N. Pineapple Ave., Sarasota.

Tickets are $18 for current Sarasota Opera subscribers and $20 for single ticket buyers. Seating is general admission. For more information: 941-328-1300; sarasotaopera.org

Random Acts and more At Venice Cabaret

Random Acts promotes itself as a troupe that is “inappropriate, immature and irreverent, but we can bust a tune.” The group that performs a mix of risque sketches with adult themes and comical musical numbers returns for another season of late night fun at the Venice Theatre Summer Cabaret Festival. Kelly Wynn Woodland directs the latest edition that will be presented at 11 p.m. Aug. 5, 6, 19 and 20. “If you get offended by anything at all, do not attend,” she warns.

Alana Opie joins with Rachel Knowles for “The American Songbook with a Twist:” at 8 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday. They intend to put a contemporary twist on a variety of standards from different genres.

Tickets for all performances are $17. For more information; 941-488-1115; venicestage.com

Jay Handelman

Jay Handelman is the theater and television critic for the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, where he has worked since 1984. He also is President of the Foundation of the American Theatre Critics Association and a two-time past chairman of the association's executive committee. He can be reached by email or call (941) 361-4931. Follow him at @jayhandelman on Twitter. Make sure to "Like" Arts Sarasota on Facebook for news and reviews of the arts.

Last modified: August 3, 2016
All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may not be published without permissions. Links are encouraged.